July 30 2019 | International Solidarity Movement | Bit Arawa, occupied Palestine
This is the first of a series of reports documenting the control and devastation of water sources by Israel as a tool of oppression.
On Thursday 18th July Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) came to the Al Baqa’a area, east of Hebron, and destroyed an irrigation system that carried water to two agricultural fields, growing around 10,000 tomato plants each.
Ghassan Jaber, 40, is the son of the owner of one of the fields. His family have been farming this land for generations. He told ISM that about thirty IOF arrived in five military jeeps at 7am. Jaber asked the IOF to show him a military order or permission form from Israeli authorities but they would not speak to him, instead forcefully evacuating him and his family away from the tomato fields. The soldiers cut the majority of the pipes that make up the irrigation system, crushing tomato plants in the process. They confiscated three of Jaber’s pesticide machines, each costing around 4000 NIS (1,100 USD). The family are currently watering the plants and administering pesticide by hand, which has greatly increased their workload. Since the incident, many of the tomato plants have died. This week, Jaber and his family are replacing the cut pipes. He estimates that this will cost about 40,000 NIS (11,000 USD), not including the additional labour costs. Jaber and his sons told ISM that they would be working for the next 24 hours to replace the pipes in time to save the crops.
Water pipes in the tomato fields destroyed by IOF
The IOF claim that Jaber’s farm is diverting water from the nearby illegal Israeli settlement Kiryat Arba. The farm has traditionally taken its water from a well owned by the Jaber family, situated on their land. In 2009, the IOF blocked the well with rubble rendering it unusable. It cost Jaber about 30,000 NIS (8,500 USD) to replace this well, and last winter the IOF blocked it again. Jaber decided to build a hidden groundwater well so that the IOF would not be able to find and destroy it. This cost Jaber about 150,000 NIS (42,500 USD). It is this groundwater well that now supplies the irrigation system. On Thursday, Jaber told the soldiers that he is using his own groundwater but they went ahead with the destruction regardless.
Jaber told ISM he is concerned that once he replaces the irrigation system, the soldiers will return and destroy it again. The extended Jaber family own and farm a lot of the land around Al Baqa’a, which is the most fertile land in Hebron. It falls in area C, under Israeli control. Kiryat Arba is very close by, making this highly contested land. The Palestinian population in this area is small, but they own most of the land. The IOF have banned the construction of new homes on this land and have previously demolished houses here, most recently in 2010. A month ago, the IOF confiscated 24 dunams of Palestinian owned land in this area.
Plants ruined by IOF and lack of water
Jaber says that this incident is not just about his family, farming and water but is linked to bigger political tensions. The IOF, he says, are targeting the Palestinian people’s sources of income and self-sustainability. They are damaging the local food supply: he predicts that as a result of the incident the price of tomatoes in Hebron will rise. This systematic assault on the everyday lives of Palestinian people is part of the Israeli government’s comprehensive warfare against Palestine.
17 November 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
“The Israelis hope that that the young people leave, the old people die, and then they can confiscate the land and the houses” says Sami, an activist working in Al Baqa’a, a windswept valley situated a few kilometers east of Hebron.
Atta and Rodni Jaber at their house in Al-Baqa'a, near Hebron
The Jaber family’s experiences of living in Al Baqa’a are similar to many other Palestinians in the area, in that their ordinary family faces extraordinary pressure on a daily basis from the Israeli military and nearby settlers.
Rodni Jaber is the mother of three daughters and a son. Dressed in a bright pink jumper and a floral headscarf, she is cheerfully voluble and keen to tell her family’s story.
“We have had our house demolished twice, this our third house on the land. We lived in a tent for six months and after that we got a court decision to live in this area within 150sqm, so we started to build this home.”
Rodni and Atta Jaber work as farmers growing grapes, raspberries and tomatoes in the milder months and radishes and turnips in the winter. Neat lines of cauliflower grow next to their stone house situated halfway up the hillside facing west towards Al Bwayre and the illegal Israeli settlements and outposts of Al Bwayre mountain.
The family owns 31 dunums of land (1 dunum = 1000 msq). Despite having papers dating from the era of the Ottoman Empire proving that the family owns the land, their house still has a demolition order in place.
“We went to the court, and we have a postponement by the Israeli military to destroy this house” says Rodni. “We are not here legally – by Israeli law – but they let us live here for the moment.”
Around 900 Palestinians live in Al Baqa’a valley. Many of the houses in the area are subject to demolition orders as the Israeli authorities and the settlers attempt to make life impossible for the Palestinians in the area to expand Israeli settlements. Local residents and activists claim to have in their possession a map on which red lines outline areas in Al Bwayre and Al Baqa’a valley that have been designated by Israeli engineers as places for the construction of 500 new housing units for Israeli settlers. Much of the land is currently inhabited by Palestinians and will need to be cleared to make way for the proposed development.
In addition to experiencing house demolitions and harassment from the military, the Jaber family has been subjected to repeated attacks by Israeli settlers from nearby Al Bwayre and Qiryat Arba settlements and various outposts.
The Jaber family's house in Al-Baqa'a Valley
The family’s house and land was attacked by settlers around a month ago. The Israeli military arrived in jeeps but declined to intervene as the settlers attempted to set fire to the house. Rodni Jaber explains:
The soldiers were there just to protect the settlers. The settlers told us to leave the house and said ‘this is our land’ . They even began to complain to the soldiers asking them to kick us out of the house saying that ‘the land is for Abraham and not for them’, putting pressure on the soldiers…They [the settlers] tried to burn the house and I began to push them to stop, I even called the Israeli police to come and see what the settlers were doing. All the family fled as we were afraid of being burned in the house.
They failed to set fire to the house. This was just one incident in a long line of attacks on the family over the years; “I lost a baby [because I was attacked by settlers]. I was 4 months pregnant at that time and they attacked me and I lost it. I have been attacked many times by the settlers and I have been in hospital many times.
Nine or ten years ago an ‘operation’ happened on the highway here by the Palestinian resistance against the settlers. After that, the settlers gathered in Qiryat Arba and came here. They broke the door, entered the house and burned it…I left without shoes and wearing my pajamas. The settlers kicked my family out for three days….The soldiers then occupied the house for 40 days. We got a high court decision to return – when we came back to the house everything was broken. At that time settlers also went to my brother’s family [who lives near the house] and they shot him in the stomach – he survived but he has a plastic stomach now.
Al Baqa’a residents live under full Israeli civil and military control in Area C, so how do they protect themselves when the soldiers stand-by and facilitate settler attacks on the family?
Rodni stated that “The chief of police has been to the area and said ‘If something happens just call me’. We got a paper from the DCO (District Coordination Offices) saying that the Israeli soldiers have to protect this house. We got this when we were attacked in 2001. But they don’t do anything – it’s just paper…Most of the Palestinian people in this area are from my family so we try to protect each other. If they attack a house they try to go to the house to protect it.”
A cousin of the family was attacked last week as he rode a donkey in the valley; settlers hit him on the head with metal piping. He was hospitalized and his wounds were stitched up, luckily he was not badly injured.
How does the family cope with the psychological pressures of the constant threat of attack? Rodni smiled and stated, ” I am very strong…and if something happens I think ‘Al Hamdillilah’ (By the blessings of God).
If the family’s experiences are often terrifying and brutal, they are also occasionally absurd. In 1998 Rodni’s son Raja’ was born. A few days after his birth, settlers attacked the house; one settler made a complaint to the police that someone called ‘Raja’ had put a knife to his chest, threatening to kill him.
“After that [several days later] the soldiers came to arrest my son – who was 40 days old” said Rodni. “They heard about my son ‘Raja’ and they came and asked ‘where is Raja’. I showed him my son who was 40 days old, I showed them his birth certificate because they didn’t believe he was Raja’.” But the incident did not stop there as Rodni said, ”
They said that Raja’ should come to the court – at the age of 50 days I had to take him to court. They said ‘where is the defendant Raja’ I showed them my son… the judge ruled that when he reaches 16 years old he will have to come to back to court!”
Surely when the case comes to court and it becomes apparent that Raja could not even sit up or support the weight of his own head at that time of the incident, let alone threaten to harm anyone, the situation will go beyond parody. Rodni laughs and agrees it will be extremely embarrassing for the Israelis but the ruling still stands; Raja is 12 years old now and in four years time he will have to go to court and explain his role in the incident.
As Rodni talks, her husband Atta returns from work, wearing a woolen hat against the Autumn chill. He talks eloquently about Palestinian history and recounts his memories of Al Baqa’a Valley during the Six Day War in 1967.
“I was five years old when they occupied the West Bank, I still remember that day. The Israelis bombed the people and the Jordanian army here and they killed maybe 150 people in that time. Everybody had put white keffiyehs out as white flags to show that this is a peaceful area.”
A ruined house destroyed by the Israeli military in Al-Baqa'a Valley
As well as talking about the area’s history and the threat from settlers and the Israeli military, Atta described the mundane challenges of daily life in Al Baqa’a valley.
” We have a lot of problems in this area; there are no schools to send our children, we don’t have any clinics or hospitals. We don’t have water – the settlers have water 24 hours a day. We connected pipes to the settlement after we had submitted a lot of applications with the Israeli administration and water companies. In 1998 we applied to the company to have water but Israel prevented this. Under the Geneva Conventions it says that you are responsible for those that you occupy, but they want to transfer us from this area even though we have been the owners of the land for hundreds of years.”
Atta and Rodni refuse to be daunted by the problems they face. When asked about what the future holds for their family, Atta evades directly answering the question and replied in broader terms.
“It is not just my future, it is about all Palestinians’ future. Their tragedy and suffering becomes greater everyday.”
Alistair George is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).
At about 17.00 on the 9th September 2010, right before Atta Jaber and his family were about to sit down to break the fast on the last day of Ramadan, eight soldiers appeared on the doorstep.
One of them said that they wanted to come into the house, in the Baqa’a Valley, east of Hebron, to “have a look”. Atta Jaber opened the door, and did not ask for further explanation, as over the years he has become accustomed to soldiers turning up in this way. His four kids, aged 10 to 17 have all grown up with daily harassment by soldiers and settlers. Still, they seemed anxious and stressed as eight armed soldiers made their way through the hallway and into the living room, most armed with M-16s, one with a machine gun. A couple of soldiers asked for Atta’s son’s name, and shook the 13 year old boy’s hand, before searching the house. The boy replied to the greetings politely.
The soldiers walked through the house, looked around all the rooms, opening closets. One soldier remarked, while looking out from the window over to the neighbor’s house – which has been occupied by the army for one week – that they just want to see what the Jaber family can see from their house. He then told the international that was asking him questions about their presence that the soldiers wanted to maintain the army base for an unknown amount of time, since the junction leading to Harsina settlement is a vulnerable place for the settlers. He said that they aim to protect the settlers from further attacks. The family then had to hand over their IDs, and the soldiers wrote down their information.
The Jaber family gathered in the living room to break the fast with the post-sunset meal known as Iftar. After fasting the whole day, they had to eat and drink in the presence of the army. It was a quiet meal. Normally the family would talk, laugh and share stories while eating, but this time everybody was looking down at the table, eating slowly. Some family members didn’t eat at all. While some of the soldiers were walking around the house, locking themselves into the rooms and taking notes, one soldier was standing next to the table, staring at the family with his machinegun in his arms. As one of the internationals looked back at him, the soldier told her to “back off!” in an aggressive manner. The same soldier also ordered Jaber and two of his children, who were sitting close to the window, to move closer to where he himself was standing. The family was not allowed to move freely around their own home, and they were not even told why the soldiers were there. The soldiers walked around the house, with their fingers resting on their gun triggers, speaking in Hebrew and laughing to each other.
After going through all the rooms in the house several times, writing down ID-information for the family members and the two internationals, one soldier gave Atta Jaber a piece of paper with English and Hebrew writing on it. He then read out loud that Jaber will have to meet with the Israeli intelligence, Shebak, on Thursday next week. The reason given was that his daughter had been filming the Israeli soldiers when they were taking over parts of their neighbor’s house on September 4th. The camera in question belongs to the human rights group B’tselem, and is lent to the Jaber family so that they can document human rights violations committed by soldiers and settlers – and there is never a shortage of incidents to document. Now Jaber has been summoned for interrogation because his family has tried to document the illegal activities of the Israeli army. It’s important to note that the Harsina settlement is illegal, and that this is what the army wants to protect by converting the neighbouring Palestinian house into a military base. The soldiers left the Jabers’ house after nearly two hours.
Atta Jabr and his family have lived in the area for more than three generations. Their house has been demolished twice. They have been attacked and harassed numerous times in the past, by both settlers and soldiers. Just over a week ago the family were trapped in their house when over 100 settlers started constructing a new outpost and soldiers took over the roof of the family’s house for several hours. Just two weeks before that Atta and his pre-teen daughter were attacked by six settlers.
Israeli soldiers have erected tents on the roof of the Salayma family's home and are occupying the building
6 September 2010 | ISM Media
Al Baqa’a, HEBRON
On Friday the Israeli army raided a Palestinian house in Hebron and converted it into a military base, forcing a family of 14 to move into the first floor of their home.
The following day the soldiers took over the roof as well. Yesterday an ISM activist visited the Salayma family in Al Baqa’a, east of Hebron, and spoke to Salem Salayma about the situation.
He said that now the roof has been taken over, soldiers have been on and off the roof constantly. Yesterday morning, at about 8am, six soldiers carried out some kind of exercise around our house, running up the hill, sitting in shooting positions and moving up and down the road. He added that sometimes the army move around in the area, walking or driving, and all the families in the area are very scared. When they see soldiers, they close the house, and stay inside because they fear the soldiers themselves – as well as the settlers who have been moving around the area regularly since the shooting of four settlers last week, and have carried out several attacks on Palestinians.
Salayma, who is in his forties, lives with his family who in total number 14, including 4 children. At present 5 family members are living on the second floor of the occupied house, and 9 are on the first floor. Now, the family has been ordered to vacate the upper floor by next Sunday, so the soldiers can expand their military base. The only reason given for the takeover of the Salayma home has been “security reasons” and no alternative provisions have been made for the family. Since their arrival soldiers have been using the house’s bathroom, water and electricity, without asking.
United Nations personnel logged a report from the family yesterday and Salayma says he wants to hire a lawyer to prevent the military from taking over his house. However, any court case would not happen for at least two weeks and by that time the military occupation of the house will likely be complete.
Salaymi, has not been out of the house since the soldiers came, because he fears for his family. He is also deeply worried however because this means he is losing the income he needs to support his family since he has not been able to go to work. He has also been unable to attend prayers.
Last night (1 Sept. 2010) around 150 to 175 Israeli settlers, many armed, constructed an illegal outpost at a new location in the Baqa’a valley, east of Hebron, and attempted to harass a Palestinian family.
A large group of settlers constructing an illegal near Road 60
The Israeli army did not attempt to disperse the settler gathering but later did partially raze the area on which the makeshift outpost buildings had been built – near the illegal Israeli settlements of Kiryat Arba and Givat Harsina, on the opposite side of Route 60, the road where four settlers were killed the previous night.
ISM activists were staying in the house of Palestinian farmer Atta Jabr and his family, who have been subjected to numerous attacks due to the proximity of the illegal Harsina settlement and the nearby “Hill 18” outpost.The last incident was just two weeks when Atta and his pre-teen daughter were attacked by six settlers.
From the house the family and the activists could observe the settlers’ activities a very short distance away.
At 17:00 six settlers arrived with a truck carrying a large water tank. Three soldiers approached them and spoke to them but took no action and left. Around half an hour later, a truck came carrying timber and other building supplies. It was unloaded by twelve settlers.
By 17:45, around 100 settlers had congregated at the site, including many armed with pistols and M16s. A digger arrived carrying around 40 bags of cement in its scoop.
By 18:30, around 175 settlers had arrived, many taking part in construction.
The home of the Jabr family which was besieged for three hours
Some settlers approached the Palestinian house, located about 40m up the hill, no doubt with the intention to harass the Jabr family again. Around 20 settler youths walked around the house. A settler family car stopped outside the front porch of the Palestinian house for a short period of time while the driver looked inside – however they took no further action. The family was effectively under siege for about three hours.
Shortly afterwards the Israeli army arrived, led by the same Captain who two weeks earlier had harassed peaceful internationals instead of removing a large group of settlers from the Palestinian Baqa’a.
A squad of six soldiers walked up to the Palestinian house. The Sergeant shouted in Hebrew demands for the windows to be shut and the lights to be switched off. The internationals didn’t understand so the Sgt lifted up his rifle and cocked it. The soldiers then climbed onto the roof.
By 19:00 it appeared that some settlers had started walking away back to Harsina.
At 20:00, some Israeli activists including Rabbis for Human Rights, AATW and ICAHD tried to access the area but been denied by the army. They reported that the outpost seemed to have been demolished, apparently by the civil administration. The soldiers came down from the roof.
Meanwhile across the valley at Al Buwayra tension was high and a settler attack was fully expected due to the village’s extremely close proximity to the outpost and it’s history settler violence. Three members of CPT and one ISM activist stayed at a house in the village that often bears the brunt of these attacks. At 11.30 news came in that settlers were stoning a nearby house. On arriving near to the house it was apparent that 4-5 settlers were throwing stones from behind the security fence at a Palestinian house. Not far from the scene the chanting and yelling of party of settlers probably numbering 30 -40 people could be heard. Not long after the internationals arrived the settlers left and the Palestinians and internationals returned to the house.
When activists went to investigate the location of the Baqa’a valley outpost construction attempt this morning they found a 3×3 metres square of cement, covered in boot prints. Palestinian Atta Jabr told them that the settlers had already come up with a Hebrew name for the outpost they wish to illegally build on Palestinian land – ‘Navi Hevron’.
This incident occurred following an announcement by the settlers that they would unilaterally violate the freeze on settlement construction – deemed illegal under international law – which is not due to expire until September 26th.
The settlers carry out so-called “price tag” attacks on Palestinians whenever the Israeli authorities prevent settlement expansion. The resumption of construction comes after the shooting of four Israeli settlers in Hebron two days ago, an attack which the militant wing of Hamas claimed responsibility for.
Atta Jabr and his family have lived in the area for more than three generations. Their house has been demolished twice. Members of the family appeared in the acclaimed 2006 documentary Occupation 101 – (clip below) – speaking about their experiences of life under Israeli occupation.
